Site Team Report

6. Faculty

Shared Governance

Michigan Tech has developed a University Senate — as opposed to a Faculty Senate. Under the current structure which is about three years old, the Senate includes both faculty and professional staff representation. Although there is some misgivings among some faculty about dilution of faculty concerns (e.g. a chapter of AAUP has recently been re-established), the Senate is achieving maturity, and the team feels that it is functioning appropriately and has strong leadership.[Commendation 5] Some concern was expressed to the team that the senior administration at times chooses to establish task-forces, rather than work through the Senate structure.

Faculty Salaries

Both the senior administration and the Board of Control have expressed as their highest priority the achievement of a faculty salary structure comparable to national norms. [Suggestion 1], [Commendation 1]

Faculty Evaluation

Michigan Tech has made recent advances in the evaluation of teaching on the part of its faculty and graduate assistants. A new evaluation instrument to assess student satisfaction and learning within a course is yielding more and better information about the quality of teaching. In providing a more specific assessment of the quality of teaching and learning within a class, it also provides the basis for more specific approaches to improvement.

A newly organized Center for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development is providing support for improved teaching evaluation and for graduate teaching assistants to improve their teaching capabilities. (Somewhat less than 20% of the student credit hours are taught by graduate assistants.) Special attention is given to assessing the language capability of those graduate assistants whose first language is not English. Increasing numbers of international graduate students will place even more importance on the special attention given to the teaching and communication abilities of these students.

The Center is cooperating with Information Technology and Library personnel to provide instructional opportunities for faculty to develop their capabilities in using web sites, e-mail, and multimedia technologies in their courses. Small faculty development grants support innovations in instruction. A competition is held twice a year for these funds.

There is not yet a comprehensive approach to faculty evaluation across the university, but good progress is being made and practices such as the maintenance of teaching portfolios are being adopted by some departments. The linkage of these new approaches to documentation required in the promotion and tenure process as well as to annual evaluation for merit increases in salary should be encouraged, with the faculty committee advisory to the Center and many others participating in determining how these linkages should be made.

Michigan Tech is making progress in tying effective faculty evaluation both to effective faculty development programs and to rewards for performance.

Women and Minority Faculty

The 1988 North Central Association review identified several areas for improvement in recruiting and retaining women and minority faculty. In response, several initiatives have been pursued. Most notable have been increases in women in tenured or tenure-track positions, a growth of 71%, from 35 to 60 in total, an increase from 13% to 17% of tenure-track and tenured faculty. Women in the engineering faculty have increased from 2 to 12. Other under-represented faculty have increased slightly from 12% to 15% of tenured/tenure track faculty. Efforts have been made to build relationships with the local Native-American tribes, but there is still just one Native-American faculty member. Hispanic-American and African-American faculty members have increased from two to four in each category.

The President of Michigan Tech has established two commissions, the Presidential Commission on Women and the Presidential Commission on Diversity. Both Commissions face similar challenges: the small pool of qualified applicants in science and engineering; the campus climate for women and minorities who are hired; and inequities in salary. The Commissions also express concern that when women and minority faculty arrive on campus, their time is heavily taken up in token representation and service commitments. Special consideration must be given to mentoring these faculty and protecting their time so that they, in turn may provide mentoring for new women and minority faculty.

It is obvious that, despite continued support from the administration and despite continued efforts of both Commissions, more resources and more aggressive efforts must be put into action if Michigan Tech truly wants to increase its under represented faculty. The Commissions offered several suggestions:

1. more follow-up at the department level, discussing needs and strategies with chairs and faculty;
2. encouraging faculty to make contacts and develop professional relationships with promising colleagues in under-represented groups;
3. involving faculty in recruiting efforts, so that these contacts and relationships might entice under-represented faculty to apply for positions at Michigan Tech;
4. encouraging departments to mentor promising graduates, in essence to "grow your own" faculty from within the Michigan Tech student body;
5. establishing a campus-wide mentoring program for all new faculty..

In summary, Michigan Tech should be proud of its continued efforts, but needs to be more aggressive in recruiting and mentoring its women and minority faculty. [Suggestion 11]

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